May News and Notes

Talk about an epic Two for Tuesday!!!  In case you didn't hear, 2 of James Franklin's biggest recruiting targets for the 2015 class made their announcements yesterday evening and it's starting to look more and more like the new Lion King can't miss.  4-star OT Sterling Jenkins, the #1 prospect in PA, and coveted 4-star, dual-threat QB Brandon Wimbush each chose Penn State in highly publicized announcements that took place less than an hour apart.  Coach Franklin was in Hershey for the third stop on this year's Coaches Caravan when the announcements were made.  Jenkins came as no surprise to anyone paying attention, but the sheer number of offers Wimbush was considering (Alabama, Ohio St, Miami, etc) made his decision a little more nerve-wracking.  As Franklin stepped up to the podium he joked, "I apologize, but if my phone rings, I'm answering it."  Sure enough, before his speech was even over, he had his prize QB for this class and 3 of the best offensive linemen in the country to protect him.  To say the future looks bright for Penn State would be an understatement.  The Lions now have 15 verbal commitments, good for most in the nation.  8 are members of the ESPN 300, 10 are 4-star prospects, and none are ranked lower than 3-stars.  The 2015 class includes the #1, 3, 4, 7, 12, and 14 players in PA, as well as 3 of the top 4 players in NJ, and the #1 player in MD (sorry, but not sorry, Rutgers and Maryland).  To put all of that in perspective, fellow Big Ten member Minnesota has ZERO commits right now, while 3 Big Ten schools have only 1 commit each.  Even mighty Ohio State, which has lost nearly every recruiting battle with Penn State thus far, only has 2 commits.  In fact, you would have to combine the recruiting classes for Nebraska and Wisconsin just to equal the talent collected by Franklin and Co.  Dominate the State?  More like #DominateTheWorld!

Obviously, the stats on this class are impressive by themselves.  But there are some intangibles that make an awesome class even more ridiculous, and it all starts with chemistry.  Trust me, it's no coincidence that Jenkins and Wimbush committed to the same school, on the same day, less than an hour apart.  Despite hailing from two different states, they already knew each other.  In fact, most of the high profile players around the country these days know each other, and they tend to recruit one another as much as any coaching staff.  Why?  Because they all go to the same camps (and room together while there), they attend the same events (like Blue/White), they have the same private instructors, and in the age of social media, they all talk on Twitter and Facebook.  Where do you think I get a lot of my information from?  These kids not only talk extensively about their recruiting on Twitter, they make all of their official announcements on the site as well.  So these players already know each other, they're media savvy, and to top it off, there doesn't appear to be any academic or behavioral issues in the whole group!  Sounds like a winning combination to me!  *Side note: if you're going to follow recruits or players on Twitter, please be VERY careful what you say to them.  Thanks to the very internet-unfriendly NCAA rule book, even the most inane conversations could turn out to be NCAA rule violations*  This brings me back to James Franklin.  After his impressive tenure at Vanderbilt, many wondered what Franklin and his staff would be able to do with the kind of resources and tradition available at a place like Penn State.  Just as former Nittany Lion Derrick Williams famously said during his high profile recruitment, it might once again be time to "wake (the) sleeping giant" that is Penn State football, and regain our rightful place as the Beast of the East!

On the NFL side of things, for your analytic pleasure, here are the draft profiles for each of the 4 Nittany Lions most likely to go pro during tomorrow night's NFL Draft.  Depending on what happens, I might even be compelled to write a quick post on Friday to let you all know where our boys in blue ended up.
WR - Allen Robinson
DT - Da'Quan Jones
OG - John Urschel
LB - Glenn Carson

Finally, in bizzaro news, offensive line coach Herb Hand will apparently be competing on the Food Network show Chopped.  I've actually never seen the show myself, but I hear good things, so congrats Coach, and good luck (even though it was filmed a year ago and he'll be rocking Vandy swag)!  Ever since Coach Hand stepped on campus, he's made his love of food well known, starting Twitter battles over pizza and appearing on my favorite podcast, the Solid Verbal, to discuss the 5-star meal he served a recruit once.  Last week he even organized a pizza crawl around downtown for charity that culminated in the unveiling of John Urschel's picture on the Inspiration Mural downtown.  Urschel's picture is right next to Sue Paterno and the former offensive lineman was on hand and clearly emotional about the entire event.

Well, that's really all that's going on right now.  The good news is that I'll be attending the King of Prussia stop for the Coaches Caravan next week.  Send your questions to PSUOptimus@gmail.com and if they're any good, I'll see if I can ask them directly to James Franklin during the Q&A.  Keep it here on the blog all off-season for the latest news and notes on all things Penn State football, don't forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!